Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon has its third multi-million dollar federal grant in three years to improve the tracking of student achievement. Rob Manning reports.

The ten-and-a-half million dollars dwarfs Oregon's two previous data grants.

It's intended to link student data from pre-school to the K through 12 and higher ed systems. And it should better connect student test data to individual teachers who have them in class.

Connecting student test scores to teachers is a sensitive issue for Oregon's statewide teachers' union – because it can lead to paying teachers based on those test results.

Courtney Vandersteck with the Oregon Education Association says that's not what the grant is paying for.

She says the goal is to give teachers more complete data on their students – but to keep that information confidential.   Courtney Vandersteck: "OEA's belief is that we'll work with the Department to assure that those security policies protect teachers and that the data is not automatically transferred for evaluation purposes." Vandersteck says the grant should also help train teachers to use the test scores to guide instruction. The money comes from the 2009 federal stimulus legislation.